Aggression Europe 1914 interview

Aggression Europe 1914 is one of the less well-known games at E3 2006 that caught my eye. At that time all that was viewable was the game's first trailer. But I was intreagued by its blend of strategy and tactical combat, combined with a broad sweep of early 20th century history. With combat ranging from the first widespread appearance of machine guns on the battlefield all the way to the early days of nuclear warfare, we have a game that has grand ambitions. Petr Prohorenko, Game Designer and Project Lead of Aggression: Europe 1914 recently took time out from working on the project to answer some of my questions regarding the game.

Boomtown: Please explain the general nature of the game for our readers.

Petr Prohorenko: Aggression: Europe 1914 is all about the two great World Wars that shook Europe in the 20th century. We’ve chosen a double-sided strategic system to show the scale of the events involving millions of people. There’s a global map for general operations planning and a set of tactical maps for local battles. Gameplay elements, such as political system, unit production and diplomacy, have also been designed to match, where possible, the political and economic systems of the 20th century.

How is the overall strategy element structured? What are players able to do on the strategy map?

Well, the players are able to make some general actions affecting the whole country. That includes choosing allies and enemies (making pacts and declaring wars), developing technology to acquire new types of military units and receive different bonuses, distributing the efforts of the working population in the cities and keeping an eye on the level of unrest all over the country. Players are also given special characters called “ministers” and a certain number of historical persons to hire, that can perform different tasks according to their skills. The abilities they have can be highly beneficial, but can make harm as well. Hiring, training and assigning ministers is a task to be taken seriously, since players are only allowed only up to 10 characters.

How many playable nations feature in the game and what are the major gameplay differences between them?

Aggression: Europe 1914 has four playable nations: Germany, Russia, France, and the UK. There are four additional non-playable counties as well: Austria-Hungary, Spain, Italy, and Turkey. The remaining counties in Europe are “united” as Neutral States. The cities and provinces that have rebelled and declared independence are considered as Rebel States.

I wouldn’t go deep into the issues of playing any country since the project’s game play is still being tested – far from the finish line – and may be heavily modified. In general, every nation has its major advantages – Germany has some advanced technology in the very beginning of the campaign, while Russia has vast territory and abundant human resources, for example.

Given the great changes in hardware during the twentieth century, how does the strategy and tactics required for success change over the period the game?

No doubt, the tactical level battles will be changing considerably with the further development of the game. In the beginning, the players will have to rely mostly on massive front assaults carried out by infantry squads or machine guns to defend the trenches. Later they will be able to use some early battle tanks, anti-tank artillery and air strikes. As the technological progress adds to the players’ military strength, they will have to look for totally new tactics to use their arsenal effectively. Near the end of the game there is a nuclear bomb to be developed. Dropping some on the tactical map would normally clear out the entire opponent’s army as well as most buildings in the area.

What scope is there for diplomacy and the use of non-violent units/strategies on the strategy map?

Well, it’s a tough one. As I’ve said before, the game is dedicated to the World Wars, so we didn’t put too much emphasis on "non-aggressive", :), solution to the game. I do not deny the possibility of using, say, special politics, well-developed economy, some spies to steal technology and control the development of rival states… With a little bit of luck you can achieve the goal before anyone else makes it, develop the nuclear bomb and use it the way you see appropriate.

Still, we don’t consider the lack of “peaceful” solution as a drawback. The first half of the 20th century is by right considered the most violent time in human history, and, while there are tools to change the history, the non-violent resolution is not a widely available one.

The twentieth century is known for some very large scale battles, what is the largest number of units can we expect to see in an Aggression battle?

The game allows for simultaneous action of 50 units from each side: that would be a total of 1000 infantrymen or 100 battle tanks. But that’s not the limit – every army or city garrison within a certain range may be called in as reinforcement. That makes it possible for 1200 (600 vs. 600) squads to take part in a single battle (while not exceeding 50 squads/side limit at any given time). That makes 12000 soldiers, which is a full-scale battle indeed.

Are troops manoeuvred as military units such as platoons and companies or as individuals.

At the tactical level squads consist of single units, which are not directly controllable. Basic infantry unit consists of 10 men, artillery – four or so. Battle tank is considered a squad by itself and can be given exact orders. Planes provide air support or recon, each squad being a wing of two or three planes. Squads that sustain losses slowly regain the strength after the battle, as the game switches to strategic overview.

What are some of the most interesting units we'll see in the game.

Well, you can expect to see some familiar units, since most of them are modeled after the historical vehicles and planes. There’s no way you would miss a Tiger tank or T-34 in this game, or some familiar-looking fighter planes and bombers. Still, there’s more – Cossacks, Algerian infantry, German assault troops from the WW1 and some other units that rarely appear in strategy games.

How complex are the commands that can be given to units, do they have different stances, modes of operation etc?

Unit control is adequate for a modern RTS. You get the basic array of commands like go-kill-hold-patrol. There are several "formations" that a unit may use, the way to group squads together for advanced army control and other familiar options. The commands in Aggression: Europe 1914 are pretty much what every modern strategy game should have.

How large in scope are the battles and how free are we to view them? Are the battles more like Total War, or perhaps more like the style of Command & Conquer?

Personally, I wouldn’t compare tactical mode in Aggression: Europe 1914 to the Total War series, since the differences in age and technology heavily influence the tactics and the way action takes place. Aggression is perhaps closer to historical RTS Blitzkrieg, though people who have played Close Combat games will see some familiar things within Aggression: Europe 1914 as well.

Tell us a little of the special effects in the game and what we can expect to see in terms of physics.

Most of the special effects are developed using our physical engine developed here in Lesta Studio. You can see the nuclear explosion in a game trailer to get an idea how the physics work. So far we are planning to use physical correct damage system for tanks and other vehicles, which would make them blow to pieces literally, wounding those unlucky enough to stand near the explosion. In general, we may not be very far ahead from our colleagues but at least we’re near the leading group of developers when it comes to game physics.

Many strategy games are winnable by just creating more units than the enemy, how much scope has a nation for winning a battle when not outnumbered?

The technologies available in the game slightly change the odds. There is a good chance to begin the game with an infantry rush (since infantry is cheap and fast to produce) but once the defender is able to build machine guns or chemical weapons, the attacker would find, that the rush strategy isn’t working anymore.

Does the game try to avoid tech rushing, where nations can just aim to create nuclear weapons as early as possible and win the game, despite the historical inaccuracy of such a strategy?

Nuclear bomb is the most deadly technology available in the game, so it will take some time to reach it. Players can, of course, focus their production to speed up the research and it is possible to create a nuclear bomb in the 1930-s. But keep in mind that this strategy will leave a country vulnerable to invasion due to the lack of industry and military units. A-bomb itself is highly expensive, which limits its use to win every battle.

Are some of the twentieth century's nastier weaponry included chemical and biological weapons featured in the game, if so how are they implemented?
Early in the game there is a way to create chemical weapons (the use of it can be countered by developing gas masks). Biological weapons never made it into the game since we are unaware of real events involving the use of biological weapons in combat.

To what extent to naval and air force units play a part in the game?

Sadly, we had to cut down on naval battles due to our production schedule. If the project will be successful, we hope that there would be an expansion pack or an add-on, which would surely bring you the great naval battles for both wars. But at this point you can try another project by our studio. It’s called “Pacific Storm” and is dedicated to the naval and aerial battles. We’ve just finished it and are working now under the standalone expansion – Pacific Storm: Allies.

Are there any other matters regarding Aggression you wish to mention?

I would like to draw attention to the fact that Aggression: Europe 1914 isn’t all about the Great War. Players will be able to march from Verdun, trench war and gas masks through all the military history of the first half of the 20th century.